V-Town Showdown: Benton vs Vilonia

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On December 10th I went to Vilonia for the V-Town Showdown Tournament. The Benton Lady Panthers took on the Vilonia Lady Eagles. This was the second match-up between these two teams. Benton beat Vilonia by 2pts earlier in the season and Vilonia was looking to get revenge on their own floor. Let's look at some players that stood out from that game.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tazayyah Buford | PG | Benton | 2023</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tazayyah is a solid, steady point guard for Benton. She's very unselfish and looks to get her teammates involved before she looks to score. Tazayyah made several plays on offense and defense. Defensively, she rebounded well from the point guard position, she got steals by playing the passing lanes, and she took three charges. Offensively she did a really good job of finding her teammates for open shots. She attacked off the bounce, finished at the rim through contact, and made some big free throws late in the 4th quarter to seal the victory for her team.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='306099' first='Alyssa' last='Houston'] | Forward | Benton | 2023</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alyssa was the most athletic player on the floor. Her quickness, speed, and strength was a tough match-up for the Vilonia team. She rebounded well and blocked shots in the interior. Alyssa showed good post moves on the low block, finished in traffic, scored through contact, worked well out of the mid-post, and showed a nice mid-range game. She has a nose for the ball offensively and defensively. She always found herself around the ball on defense and she seemed to moved to the right spots to get open on offense.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Madison McIntire | Guard | Benton | 2023</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Madison got my attention very quickly at the game. She came out on fire from behind the three-point line. During this game you could describe her as a “Zone Buster”, “Flame Thrower”, or you could just say her jumper was “Wet”. Madison finished with 17 points, but she hit 5 threes, 4 of those came in the first half. Not only can she make the three-ball, she also scored her other basket in transition. The Euro step she finished with, over two defenders, on the fast break was impressive. To shoot the shot on balance and with touch was tough to do.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='465493' first='Sidni' last='Middleton'] | PG | Vilonia | 2025</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sidni continues to impress me with her skill level and potential. You can see the improvement she's had since last season when she was a freshman. She's more comfortable running the team and taking more of a leadership role. From a skill standpoint she possess certain abilities you love to see out of a point guard. She made plays with both hands, showed patience and vision out of the pick and roll, beat the defense off the dribble and knocked down the catch and shoot three as well as the mid-range jumper.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Alexis Heston | Wing | Vilonia | 2024</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alexis was a player that I didn't know much about but had a great game vs Benton. The junior wing stepped up big time. She brought energy, gave effort, played hard on both ends of the floor and played unselfishly. Alexis was a player that is going to run the offense and play her role, and by doing that she was successful. She did a good job of diving to the basket after setting the on-ball screen and finishing in traffic, she scored when there was contact, she could attack from the perimeter in a straight line, and shoots with a soft touch. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->